the totally random runequest character generation method

1.3: Townsman. Roll twice, rerolling duplicates. Each skill gets a +10% bonus. D8. Skill. 1. Artistic Expression. 2. Boating. 3. Driving. 4. Persistence. 5. Resilience.
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THE TOTALLY RANDOM RUNEQUEST CHARACTER GENERATION METHOD New campaign? Stuck for ideas? Let the dice decide your fate. By Chris Longhurst. Sometimes, when it’s time to start a new campaign, you know what sort of character you want to play. He – or she – springs fully-formed into your head, along with likes, dislikes, a family history and an esoteric-but-distinctive weapon of choice. Sometimes, you don’t get much further than ‘he’s this guy… with a thing… I think he likes crème brulee…’ and so on. That was how I felt when I began creating a character for the Mongoose Towers RuneQuest game. I knew from Nick (the GM) that he was going to be an Orlanthi, but that was it. While we were generating statistics, I was hit with a sudden idea: why not generate everything about the character randomly? I had no real preferences, so I could just keep rolling dice until I ended up with something I could work with. This method proved popular. So popular, in fact, that everybody in the office generated their characters this way. The beauty of it is that it paints in broad strokes first and works down to the details, allowing you to stop rolling dice and start choosing options once you have a firmer idea of where the character is going. Or you can do it ‘hardcore’ and roll every last skill point randomly, but don’t blame us if you end up with a STR 7 barbarian animal trainer who speaks six languages and is highly skilled1 at lockpicking. So, without further ado, here is the revised, expanded, and updated Totally Random RuneQuest Character Generation System, including options from the RuneQuest core rulebook and the RuneQuest Companion. For even better random results, roll 1D100+1 and consult ‘101 Character Backgrounds’ from last issue! 1

That’s ‘highly skilled for a RuneQuest character’, which at starting level means ‘probably won’t sever his own leg while trying to pick a lock’.

Part 1: Statistics

This follows the usual system on page 5 of the RuneQuest core rulebook, with one caveat: you aren’t allowed to swap ability scores around. You keep what you roll, in the order you roll it.

Part 2: Attributes Derive your attributes from your statistics in exactly the same way as normal.

Part 3: Basic Skills Once again, basic skills are wholly unchanged.

Part 4: Previous Experience

Here’s where most of the dice rolling happens. First determine your background, then your profession, using the following steps.

Step 1: Determine Background Roll to determine your background. Once you have it, apply all the usual bonuses, rolling on the tables below for any section that starts ‘Pick One’ or ‘Pick Two’ or so on. D8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Background Barbarian Peasant Townsman Noble Civilised Mariner Nomad Primitive

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Roll again on the table(s) corresponding to your cultural background. 1.1: Barbarian

1.2: Peasant

1.3: Townsman

1.4: Noble

Roll twice, rerolling duplicates. Each skill gets a +5% bonus. D4 Skill 1 Boating 2 Lore (Animal) 3 Lore (Plant) 4 Riding

Roll twice, rerolling duplicates. Each skill gets a +10% bonus. D6 Skill 1 Boating 2 Dodge 3 Driving 4 First Aid 5 Persistence 6 Reroll or choose

Roll twice, rerolling duplicates. Each skill gets a +10% bonus. D8 Skill 1 Artistic Expression 2 Boating 3 Driving 4 Persistence 5 Resilience 6 Sleight 7 Stealth 8 Reroll or choose

Roll twice, rerolling duplicates. Each skill gets a +5% bonus. D4 Skill 1 Evaluate 2 Dodge 3 Perception 4 Riding

Roll three times, rerolling duplicates. Each skill gets a +10% bonus. D12 Weapon Skill Axe (roll a D6: 1 1-3 = 1-handed, 4-6 = 2-handed) Hammer (roll a D6: 2 1-3 = 1-handed, 4-6 = 2-handed) 3 Blowgun 4 Bow 5 Dagger 6 Shield 7 Sling 8 Spear 9 Staff 10 Throwing 11 Unarmed 12 Reroll or choose Roll once. Gain the advanced skill indicated at its base percentage. D6 Advanced Skill 1 Artistic Expression 2 Craft 3 Dance 4 Lore 5 Play Instrument 6 Tracking

Roll twice, rerolling duplicates. Each skill gets a +10% bonus. D10 Weapon Skill 1 1H Axe 2 1H Flail 3 1H Hammer 4 2H Axe 5 Dagger 6 Sling 7 Spear 8 Staff 9 Unarmed 10 Reroll or choose Roll twice, rerolling duplicates. Gain the advanced skill indicated at its base percentage. D6 Advanced Skill 1 Craft 2 Dance 3 Lore 4 Play Instrument 5 Survival 6 Reroll or choose

Roll twice, rerolling duplicates. Each skill gets a +10% bonus. D6 Weapon Skill 1 1H Hammer 2 1H Sword 3 Dagger 4 Crossbow 5 Polearm 6 Shield Roll once. Gain the advanced skill indicated at its base percentage. D6 Advanced Skill 1 Craft 2 Dance 3 Language 4 Lore 5 Play Instrument 6 Shiphandling

Roll twice, rerolling duplicates. Each skill gets a +15% bonus. D6 Weapon Skill 1 1H Sword 2 2H Sword 3 Dagger 4 Rapier 5 Shield 6 Reroll or choose Roll twice, rerolling duplicates. Gain the advanced skill indicated at its base percentage. D10 Advanced Skill 1 Artistic Expression 2 Courtesy 3 Craft 4 Dance 5 Language 6 Lore 7 Oratory 8 Play Instrument 9 Shiphandling 10 Reroll or choose

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1.7: Nomad 1.5: Civilised Roll twice, rerolling duplicates. Each skill gets a +10% bonus. D6 Weapon Skill 1-3 Rapier 4-6 Crossbow Roll three times, rerolling duplicates. Gain the advanced skill indicated at its base percentage. D8 Advanced Skill 1 Artistic Expression 2 Craft 3 Dance 4 Language 5 Lore 6 Mechanisms 7 Play Instrument 8 Streetwise

1.6: Mariner Roll twice, rerolling duplicates. Each skill gets a +10% bonus. D4 Weapon Skill 1 1H Hammer 2 1H Sword 3 Dagger 4 Unarmed Roll once. Gain the advanced skill indicated at its base percentage. D4 Advanced Skill 1 Craft 2 Language 3 Lore 4 Shiphandling

Roll once. D6 1-2 3-4 5-6

Subtype Arctic Nomad Desert Nomad Temperate Nomad

Roll twice, rerolling duplicates. The indicated weapon skill gets the indicated bonus. D8 Arctic (+15%) Desert (+15%) 1 1H Axe 1H Axe 2 1H Sword 3 Bow 1H Hammer 4 Dagger 5 Shield Dagger 6 Reroll 7 Reroll Spear 8 Reroll or choose

Temperate (+10%) 1H Axe 1H Hammer Blowgun Bow Dagger Shield Sling Reroll or choose

Roll once. Gain the advanced skill indicated at its base percentage. D4 Arctic Desert Temperate 1 Craft Craft Craft 2 Lore Lore Language 3 Tracking Tracking Lore 4 Reroll or choose Reroll or choose Tracking

1.8: Primitive Roll once. Skill get +10%. Ug. D6 Weapon Skill 1 1H Axe 2 1H Hammer 3 Dagger 4 Sling 5 Spear 6 Reroll or choose

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Step 2: Determine Profession Barbarians, Peasants, Townsmen, and Civilised

Nobles and Temperate Nomads

If your background is barbarian, peasant, townsman or civilised, roll on this table. You will need to roll a D3 and a D8 to select your profession (unless you are civilised, in which case a D2 and a D8 are in order).

If your background is noble or temperate nomad, roll on this table.

If you score a profession in italics, there are more dice to be rolled before you move on. See below. D3 D8 Barbarian Peasant Townsman Civilised Alchemist Alchemist 1 Acrobat Acrobat Animal Animal Bard Blacksmith 2 Trainer Trainer Bard Bard Blacksmith Courtier 3 1 Blacksmith Blacksmith Courtier Craftsman 4 Craftsman Craftsman Craftsman Diplomat 5 Explorer Diplomat Explorer 6 Farmer Mercenary Knight 7 Farmer Fisherman Healer Merchant 8 Fisherman Lord Healer 1 Herdsman Militiaman Physician Peddler Priest 2 Herdsman Hunter Mercenary Scholar 3 Hunter Physician Mercenary Priest Scribe 4 Militiaman Peddler Soldier 5 Miner Sailor 2 Shaman Peddler Scholar Spy 6 Soldier Priest Scribe 7 Reroll Reroll or Thief Soldier 8 Sailor choose Soldier Spy 1 Tracker Witch Thief Thief 2 3 Woodsman Tracker Town Guard Witch Wizard 4 Reroll 5 Reroll Woodsman Reroll 3 6 Reroll Reroll Reroll 7 Reroll Reroll Reroll Reroll or Reroll or Reroll or 8 choose choose choose

If you score a profession in italics, there are more dice to be rolled before you move on. See below. D12 Noble Temperate Nomad Courtier 1 Acrobat Diplomat 2 Animal Trainer Explorer Craftsman 3 Knight Explorer 4 5 Lord Herdsman 6 Physician Hunter Scholar Peddler 7 Soldier Shaman 8 Spy 9 Tracker Thief 10 Reroll Wizard 11 Reroll 12 Reroll or choose Reroll or choose

Mariners, Arctic Nomads, Desert Nomads, and Primitives If your background is mariner, arctic nomad, desert nomad, or primitive, roll on this table. If you score a profession in italics, there are more dice to be rolled before you move on. See below. D6 Mariner Arctic Nomad Desert Nomad Primitive Craftsman Craftsman 1 Animal Trainer Hunter Explorer Explorer Craftsman 2 Explorer 3 Fisherman Fisherman Shaman Mercenary Hunter 4 Hunter Merchant Shaman Shaman 5 Reroll or Tracker Tracker 6 Sailor choose

2.1: Scribes Roll three times on the table below. Each time you roll, you may either take a new specialty at the basic percentage, or add +10% to a specialty you already know. D6 Skill 1-3 Language 4-6 Lore

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2.2: Bards, Courtiers, Diplomats, Explorers and Scholars

2.3: Merchants, Thieves and Wizards

Bards, courtiers and diplomats roll once on the table below and gain the advanced skill at the indicated percentage. Explorers and scholars roll twice, rerolling any duplicates. If you roll a skill in italics, you must take a new skill of that type and cannot add +10% to an existing skill instead.

Roll once on the table below and gain the indicated advanced skill at its base percentage. If you roll a skill in italics, you must take a new skill of that type and cannot add +10% to an existing skill instead.

D8

Bard Artistic Expression

Courtier Artistic Expression

Diplomat Artistic Expression

2

Courtesy

Courtesy

Courtesy

3

Dance

Lore (Art)

Dance

4

Play Instrument

5

Language

6

Lore

7

Oratory Reroll or choose

Lore (Heraldry) Lore (Philosophy) Lore (Regional) Oratory Play Instrument

1

8

Explorer Language Lore (Astronomy) Lore (Geography)

Scholar Artistic Expression Courtesy Engineering

Language

Shiphandling

Healing

Lore

Survival

Language

Reroll

Lore

Reroll Reroll or choose

Mechanisms Reroll or choose

Play Instrument Oratory Reroll or choose

If you are a wizard, you must also roll on the Randomly Determined Rune table until all your runes have been assigned. D3 Merchant Thief Wizard 1 Language Disguise Language 2 Lore (Logistics) Mechanisms Lore Runecasting 3 Shiphandling Streetwise All this could be yours...

2.4: Blacksmiths, Craftsmen, Knights, Peddlers, Shamans, Spies, and Witches Blacksmiths, Craftsmen, Shamans, Spies and Witches roll once on the table below and gain the indicated advanced skill at its base percentage. Peddlers roll in both of their columns – once for an advanced skill at its base percentage and once for a weapon skill at the indicated bonus. Knights roll in both their columns as peddlers do, but roll twice for weapon skills, rerolling any duplicates. If you roll a skill in italics, you must take a new skill of that type and cannot add +10% to an existing skill instead. If you are a shaman or a witch, you must also roll on the Randomly Determined Rune table until all your runes have been assigned. Knight Weapon Peddler Weapon Peddler D4 Blacksmith Craftsman (+10%) Knight Advanced (+5%) Advanced Shaman or Witch 1 Engineering Artistic Expression 1H Sword Courtesy 1H Hammer Language Healing Craft 2 Mechanisms 2H Sword Dance Crossbow Lore Lore 3 Craft (Armourer) Engineering Shield Oratory Staff Streetwise Runecasting 4 Craft (Weaponsmith) Mechanisms Spear Play Instrument Unarmed Survival Survival

Spy Courtesy Disguise Language Tracking

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2.5: Mercenaries

2.6: Soldiers

Mercenaries roll twice on each of the following tables and gain the skill bonus indicated. Reroll any duplicates. D12 Weapon Skill (+15%) 1 1H Axe 2 1H Flail 3 1H Hammer 4 1H Sword 5 2H Axe 6 2H Flail 7 2H Hammer 8 2H Sword 9 Bow 10 Crossbow 11 Polearm 12 Shield

Soldiers roll three times on the following table, rerolling any duplicates. They gain +10% to the skills indicated. D20 Skill 1 1H Axe 2 1H Flail 3 1H Hammer 4 1H Sword 5 2H Axe 6 2H Flail 7 2H Hammer 8 2H Swordh 9 Athletics 10 Bow 11 Crossbow 12 Dagger 13 Driving 14 Polearm 15 Riding 16 Shield 17 Sling 18 Spear 19 Reroll 20 Reroll or choose

D8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Skill (+5%) Athletics Dagger Dodge Driving Evaluate Resilience Riding Unarmed

2.7: Alchemists, Healers, Priests, Shamans, Witches, and Wizards. Any character with the runecasting skill can roll on this table to randomly determine which rune they start with. If they begin the game with multiple runes, roll multiple times, rerolling duplicates.

The Randomly Determined Rune Table D6 1 2 3 4 5 6

Alchemist Metal Motion Plant Stasis

Healer Beast Fertility Plant Man

Priest Communication Law Man Spirit Reroll Reroll or choose

Shaman Beast Earth Man Spirit

Witch Fertility Luck Moon Shadow

Wizard Air Cold Earth Fire Heat Water

This table is for runes gained from a character’s profession. If you are randomly generating experienced characters, roll for their extra runes on the table on page 65 of the RuneQuest core rulebook.

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Step 3: Free Skill Points Count the number of free skill points you have, and divide that number by 10. Roll that many times on the following table. For each skill you roll, either add +10% to it if you already have the skill or gain the skill at its base percentage if you do not.1 If you roll a skill three times, reroll any further results that indicate that skill again.2 D10\D6 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 Acrobatics Lore (World) Craft Shiphandling 2H Hammer Bow 2 Athletics Perception Dance Streetwise 2H Sword Crossbow 3 Boating Persistence Disguise Survival Dagger Sling 4 Dodge Resilience Engineering Tracking Martial Arts Artistic Expression 5 Driving Riding Healing 1H Axe Polearm Courtesy 6 Evaluate Sing Language 1H Flail Rapier Oratory 7 First Aid Sleight Lore 1H Hammer Shield Runecasting* 8 Influence Stealth Martial Arts 1H Sword Spear Reroll 9 Lore (Animal) Throwing Mechanisms 2H Axe Staff Reroll 10 Lore (Plant) Unarmed Play Instrument 2H Flail Blowgun Reroll or choose *If you have no runes, you may reroll or choose a skill.

And there you have it: every table you need to construct a totally random character using the RuneQuest core rulebook and the RuneQuest Companion. Give it a try next time you’re generating a character – you might be surprised at what you end up with...

Things are not going so well...

1

For skills like Craft and Artistic Expression, you may choose whether to gain a new one or improve an existing one.

2

This is for starting characters, because they cannot benefit from more than 30 skill points in a single skill – if you are creating more experienced characters, you reroll rolls after the fifth for a Seasoned character, seventh for a Veteran, and ninth for a Master or Hero.

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